The Iranian government has imposed a six-day lockdown in the capital Tehran after an increase in the number of deaths and infections related to the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Tehran - "Tehran has been declared a Red Zone and therefore all authorities in the city will be closed from Tuesday to Sunday," government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on state television on Monday.
According to media reports, the bazaar and shopping arcades will also remain closed during this period.
It is still unclear whether the banks will also close or not.
The so-called delta variant had caused an increase in the corona numbers in the country in recent weeks.
According to the Ministry of Health, there have recently been up to 200 deaths and over 22,000 new infections per day.
Since the pandemic began, Iran has recorded more than 87,000 deaths and over 3.5 million infections.
The country has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, partly because the economic crisis and US sanctions have made it much more difficult to import vaccines. The vaccination campaign for the more than 83 million people is making slow progress. So far, just over ten percent of Iranians have been vaccinated with mainly Russian and Chinese vaccines.